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Amazon to display tariff costs for consumers
- glimshe 1y ago[flagged]
- sebstefan 1y agoA trade deficit is not inherently unhealthy Then even without that, your 6 biggest companies are Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta. Then the seventh is private equity. Then it's back to Alphabet again, and Broadcom. The trade deficit calculation excludes services, including but not limited to: software So even with countries where you supposedly have trade deficits you're not even sure that you really do. TL;DR It won't help you select jack shit
- glimshe 1y agoI don't think our middle class can survive if all we make is software. Europe and others maintained its industrial base through heavy protectionism and tax manipulation. We can do that too. Feel free to use the tariff information differently or not at all. I also want to buy more American products and this information may help with that too. Even if they are more expensive and their quality is inferior. You can choose to do otherwise and I don't have a problem with that.
- sebstefan 1y agoThat's not what you said You said: "This will help me select products from nations that have a healthier and more sustainable commercial relationship with the US." It's not going to help you with that
- HamsterDan 1y ago[flagged]
- sebstefan 1y agoDrop your little red hat for some glasses and read the discussion again.
- thrance 1y agoDo you have a healthy and sustainable commerical relationship with your grocer? Perhaps you should stop trading with them until they buy as much from you as you buy from them?
- indymike 1y agoI'd love to have this kind of transparency on mandated fees and taxes on everything.
- CodeCompost 1y agoTariffs are good. Tax the consumers and pass them as tax breaks to the rich. /s
- thrance 1y agoYou don't have to put the "/s", it's literally what happened. It's not like they're hiding it. Trump wants to get back to the Gilded Age (he's said so many times), were the only form of taxation were tariffs on foreign imports, and the bourgeoisie was able to amass unparalleled power and wealth domestically, at the expense of everyone else. As far as I'm concerned, this is dumb as shit and straight reverse-robinhood.
- mrweasel 1y agoI absolutely hate the fact that you can go read "Protection or Free Trade(1)" by Henry George and learn that this is exactly what will happen. Tariffs are a tax on the poor, it will never benefit them, in any shape or form. It won't bring them jobs, it won't increase their pay, tariffs only serves to line the pockets of the already wealthy manufacturers. For everyone else this is just an increase on the products they consume. Then realise that Henry George published that book in 1886. It is an incredibly relevant piece of work that shows EXACTLY what will/is happening in the US. It's also terrifying that a book that's almost 140 years old describes the problems with current policies so well. 1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protection_or_Free_Trade https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protection_or_Free_Trade
- Der_Einzige 1y agoHenry George, Georgeism, the Land Value Tax, Thomas Paine, and the modern versions of their ideas (i.e. Andrew Yang's platform) are LITERALLY the best ideas we have ever conceived in regards to economic policy making. Milton fking Friedman agrees that the LVT is the only "good" tax. Unfortunately, parasites get fucked up by these policies, and so they will fund right wing fascist revolutions to make absolutely sure that NOTHING that Henry George ever proposed is implemented. Henry George is among the greatest humans who ever lived. Free Trade! Free Land! Free Men!
- yapyap 1y agoBezos slighting Trump? Interesting
- alistairSH 1y agoMeh, he’s already paid millions in bribes (that we now about). That’ll buy him a pass for a little while.
- matwood 1y agoTrump stabs everyone in the back eventually. It highlights the narcissism of all the tech CEOs that they somehow thought they would be different.
- ceejayoz 1y agoNo, it won’t. It just tells the administration there’s more where that comes from. Vader: “I’m altering the deal. Pray I do not alter it any further.”
- coliveira 1y agoThis may backfire. Will they also show how much their profits are costing consumers?
- rwoerz 1y agoMy guess: No, they won't
- alistairSH 1y agoIndirectly… Tariff is based on their cost, not list price, right?
- devrandoom 1y agoThat requires you to know when the item was imported. The tarrif forecast is a harder business than mid level wizardry.
- indoordin0saur 1y agoMy favorite brand drops a new pair of shoes in June. I order them shortly thereafter. They are imported from China who at the time has a 100% tariff. I see a $5 tariff charge. I now know that the $250 pair of shoes actually cost the retailer $5 and my boyfriend who keeps telling me they are cheap trash is suddenly vindicated.
- murderfs 1y agoWhere exactly do you think Amazon's profits are coming from? Over half of their profit comes from AWS, and the retail side does not appear to have substantially different margins than brick and mortar retailers (~3% net margin).
- hattmall 1y agoThe fees they charge third party sellers are significant.
- jl6 1y agoPresumably they can determine this for items directly imported, but for all other cases (such as a made-in-the-USA product that is built using made-in-China tools, or from made-in-China components), surely the cost impact on the final product could be extremely complex to work out, if they even have access to that level of supply chain detail?
- abirch 1y agoA lazy way to do this is to take the current price as the non tariff price and assume any increase in price is based on tariffs.
- littlestymaar 1y agoThat would also be quite a misleading way to do it.
- acdha 1y agoI’m sure it would be off in some cases, but “quite misleading” seems like an exaggeration: the economy was steadily growing and there weren’t any major drivers of inflation other than Trump’s massive tax hike.
- mrits 1y agoI don't think it takes much thinking to realize how misleading this is. I'd really be interested in Prime Day when tariffs are decreasing everything
- acdha 1y agoCan you give an example? Usually short term price fluctuation would be in response to something like a sudden change in market demand or something like a natural disaster lowering production but nothing like that seems to have happened other than the largest tax increase in U.S. history and the demand shock from the federal cuts should be lowering prices, not raising them.
- abirch 1y agoThis makes sense and it kind of anchors people on a lower price point. Not sure how many people like me are going to postpone purchases.
- TrackerFF 1y agoCool, it is rare to see that kind of transparency. I live in a country with both tariffs / import taxes on a bunch of items, and a general VAT. VAT (25%) is the only thing you ever see as a consumer, and other taxes (like for exmaple 10.7% on clothes imported to my country) are hidden away by the stores. I've been checking out some of the aliexpress / temu / etc. subreddits, and US consumers are losing their marbles over the new import duties. Most stores have now rolled out those on check-out.
- robalpha 1y agoWouldn't this reveal their margins? If you see the tariff amount, you can then find the appropriate line in the policy and then calculate how much they paid for it at import.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- Clubber 1y agoYes, good point. I suspect the numbers won't be precise. The objective is to qualify raising prices, not necessarily their own transparency. Of course this is signaling that Amazon is choosing to distribute the costs to customers rather than absorbing them in any way, so take that for what it is.
- indoordin0saur 1y ago> Yes, good point. I suspect the numbers won't be precise. This has to be illegal. You can't slap on a $20 sales tax fee at the end when it's actually $12 and pocket the difference as profit.
- Clubber 1y agoThis isn't sales tax, this is tariff. Not sure if they are any laws regarding that or not. It might be like shipping and handling: $20. The shipping is probably $5, the handling is $15. The handling is just a fee they charge to sell it to you. They want you to think it's shipping that's why they put "shipping" first. Uber Eats calls it "taxes and other fees," which are mostly fees, but they want you to think it's taxes, that's why they put "taxes" first. Many business are scummy like that, we've just gotten used to it. The point being, they are signaling a price hike and they are trying to attribute it to tariffs, which maybe or may not be true down to the penny. If they were exact in what the tariff was, people can easily calculate their cost, which Amazon doesn't want. I'm sure they will sneak in some extra profit in there at some point using similar tactics as described above.
- dapf 1y agoGreat! They should do that in every single country, for all tariffs.
- pjc50 1y agoNot an unreasonable idea. All UK receipts show VAT broken out (where applicable, not a tariff) Prices shown should be post-tax post-fees all-in wherever possible, though. Otherwise you get Ryanair.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- Trasmatta 1y agoMaybe Jeff shouldn't have been so eager to jump on the Trump train.
- ceejayoz 1y agoThe #1 rule of being extorted is giving in means you’ve shown you can be extorted. The extorter will never stop increasing the ask. Columbia University found this out.
- HamsterDan 1y agoIt's pretty clear you don't know what blackmail is.
- ceejayoz 1y agoExtortion, if you prefer. I'll edit it.
- Der_Einzige 1y agoI hate the cheeto in chief, but I also really hate low quality Chinese shit. I'd love to see Timu and the myraid amounts of trash that Amazon sells finally die. That said, China makes a lot of good quality things too and a whole lot of things that we have no hope of being competitive in producing. Also, it's not like anything we bring back to the USA under the circumstances is going to be higher quality. I was already buying a lot of clothes from brands that pride themselves on trying hard to do Made in America, like Schott Nyc. It'll be interesting to see how this impacts them or brands like Thursday. I really want the impact of this to be to force Americans to buy fewer, higher quality things instead of bloat loads of cheap shit. I don't think that this will be the impact of the policy, unfortunately... Also, given that Cheeto promised no more IRS, I shouldn't have to pay federal income taxes this year. Don't tread on me zion don.
- Etheryte 1y agoThe Red Coalition ad under the article hits a very ironic note: > You voted for American energy dominance—and the Trump Administration is delivering. From solar to oil & gas, they’re unleashing it all. More energy. More jobs. Higher wages. America is booming—because when we lead, we win.
- Loughla 1y agoAre we booming?
- op00to 1y agoDid we not have enough energy before? Rolling blackouts due to fuel shortages?
- watwut 1y agoThe Trump wrote, literally: We’ve never seen anything like it. The markets are going to boom. The stock is going to boom. The country is going to boom. You can't argue against that, he was right. It all did BOOM.
- rubyfan 1y agoThe whole site seems sponsored by them?
- hypeatei 1y agoI'm surprised they're able to calculate all of this properly in the first place. The U.S. doesn't have government personnel at the ports so the importer self reports. There isn't a central system to administer these tariffs either so during chaotic moments, you go based off the tweet of the hour I guess.
- DennisP 1y agoOr you start bribing customs officials not to spot-check you, because when the policy's so chaotic it's the only way you can do business.
- venusenvy47 1y agoI'm friends with someone who works for a logistics company, and collecting the tariff from each company, and sending to the government, is part of the service they provide. It actually wasn't a complicated part of their business until a couple months ago, because of how little that aspect would change. But now their compliance teams have to read the Federal Register every day to keep up. They are getting stuck in the middle of this, because they quote the delivery costs to the company, but by the time the shipment arrives, the tariff has suddenly risen and then the company complains "that is not the cost you quoted us".
- aaronbaugher 1y agoThey're not able to. They're pulling numbers out of their asses, like everyone is right now.
- MBlume 1y agoTrump will certainly consider this provocation, so perhaps the news here is that Amazon considered this worth it, even given the inevitable retaliation.
- kenjackson 1y agoIsn’t Trump the one doing the tariffs? Isn’t the point to get you to buy products without tariffs? I’d think this plays directly into what Trump wants.
- mbfg 1y agoThe Tariffs would have to be around 1000% for it to be worth buying american in many cases.
- kemotep 1y agoTrump has at least 3 contradictory goals that he has spoken at length about with his tariff policies so it’s not clear what exactly would make him happy that you could consistently work towards other than I guess capitulating to whatever demands he has that day.
- deskamess 1y agoThe narrative has been that the 'other countries' pay for the tariff. Not the US consumer. So this may be an issue and not one that you can walk away from easily when the customer sees that it is added to their bill.
- dboreham 1y agoAmazon should add an "I did that" graphic with Trump's face next to the price increase.
- hamilyon2 1y agoCan Amazon please also list every subsidy and incentive, state, federal and local, tax evasion loophole and proportion of it passed to consumer?
- digdigdag 1y agoWhy would (should) they? The tarrif is biggest contributor to the would-be price increase, and they want to offload the blame to the policies that enacted it. Why do you think you get a breakdown of governmental fees in your electric or phone bill, but not the tax subsidies?
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- abhisek 1y agoThe original article is behind a paywall so can't really read through it. But am guessing its something to do with the trade war with China. Alternative information source suggests it has something to do with sellers who import from China are pulling off from the Prime Day. > Tariffs on sellers' goods are putting Amazon in an awkward position for Prime Day, said Arun Sundaram, an analyst at CFRA Research. https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/some-amazon-sellers-are-pulling-out-prime-day-amid-trump-tariffs-2025-04-28/ https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/some-amazon...
- horns4lyfe 1y agoAre they going to show the cost of tariffs for other countries as well? Or just partisan hackiness?
- sebstefan 1y agoDo you really believe that it would change anything if a democrat did this? There's nothing partisan about this, it's Amazon. They like free trade. It's about policy not the party
- swarnie 1y agoAlmost all developed countries have free trade agreements with their biggest partners. 100%+ fees added overnight are interesting, no one is writing features to show 0% that hasn't budged in decades.
- petesergeant 1y agoIn which direction is this partisan? Trump’s proud of the tariffs isn’t he?
- watwut 1y agoYes, you can see tariffs and shipping separately on Amazon when buying in different country. At least could a while ago, I havet done that foe a long time.
- rsynnott 1y agoIn most of the countries that Amazon operate in, for most products, they'll be either 0 or minimal. Developed countries tend to have weighted average tariffs of 1-2%; there are often carve-outs for specific goods for protectionist purposes, but they're rarely on consumer products. Also, I thought these were bigly beautiful tariffs, Trump's proudest achievement; surely he will be pleased to see them displayed so prominently, so that people can marvel at them?
- Zamaamiro 1y agoSince when did free trade become a partisan issue? All respected economists on all sides of the political spectrum agree that tariffs hurt the economy. The current President is the only political actor pushing for tariffs. Reminding people that tariffs are a tax on the consumer is not a partisan issue; it is transparency and plainly economics 101.
- alphabetting 1y agoOver half of Amazon's third party sellers are Chinese companies who regularly false report to dodge tariffs on their products in ways that American competitors can't. Amazon claims to police them but they're extremely reliant on them at this point and the Chinese sellers just start up new brands if penalized. https://x.com/zackkanter/status/1908343624464576666 https://x.com/zackkanter/status/1908343624464576666
- ericmay 1y agoThe best way to avoid this kind of behavior is to avoid shopping at stores where you can’t trace the origin of their products. Stop buying “brands”, and looking for “deals” and acting like a consumer. Do research and find high quality products, pay more for those products, buy less disposable junk. This isn’t just a “China” thing it’s in general.
- trollbridge 1y agoI buy cheap things at Harbor Freight now instead of on Amazon because at least then I know I can return it if it breaks.
- conductr 1y agoI find Amazon has the better return policy. HF has at times zero flexibility and I find I really have to pay attention to each item’s policy and weight the risk of failure (eg. A $5 hammer is low risk, $400 machine is too high risk). It’s not worth the mental math required while shopping. I only buy consumables there (HF) now, gloves, ropes, tarps, etc. Nothing with moving part, especially a motor. I’ve been left holding the bag on $400 items I I couldn’t even assemble because the bolt holes were out of alignment (obvious manufacturing defect) and they’ve refused to allow the return or force a boxing fee on me.
- DrillShopper 1y agoThis seems like the exact situation a credit card chargeback is designed to fix.
- apawloski 1y agoIn an administration that changes critical economic policies on a week-to-week basis, listing this as surcharge makes sense. Easier to change than baking into the price.
- niam 1y agoI wonder if they keep this after Trump's gone, especially for countries whose tariffs were high before Trump. I as a customer would prefer they did. My uninformed guess is that this hurts the bottom line in at least the short term if customers are less likely to purchase an item which sports high tariffs (even if they might otherwise buy the item if the precise tariff were hidden). And the long term benefit to global trade (inasmuch as one sees that as a good thing, which I mostly do) isn't something that's very testable, much less certain.
- xienze 1y ago> I wonder if they keep this after Trump's gone, especially for countries whose tariffs were high before Trump. I as a customer would prefer they did. They won't. It's clearly meant to target Trump specifically. It's not as though there were absolutely no tariffs of any kind on various products before this year, so ask yourself why they're so concerned about showing tariffs NOW and not say, any time in the past.
- rsynnott 1y agoThe US's weighted average tariff was previously something like 1.8%, and even then that was pumped up by tariffs on various agricultural products and on cars (ie stuff people were unlikely to buy on Amazon). Most developed countries are in the 1-2% range. Their Brazilian site might be one place that it would make sense, in that Brazil does have rather high tariffs.
- jstummbillig 1y agoCan I assume that nobody is actually commenting on the article (considering it's paywalled, on a site that I personally never heard about before) and every comment in this thread is spawned off of 7 words of headline?
- fortran77 1y agoVery few people read the articles on Hacker News, no matter what the source.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- dizhn 1y agoI am not sure if everyone was able to read the paywalled article but the general consensus from the comments seem to be the expectation that amazon will list tariffs for all products. They actually already do this in Amazon stores in other countries for good that are shipped from overseas. They display the cost of customs processing and it's either included or in addition to the base cost. Then they tack on shipping if applicable. This of course is only for products that do not require further customs processing due to the cost of items going over allowed limits, number of units that are considered commercial purchases, whether the product is in a list of products with different requirements etc. I really do doubt Amazon will do something much different in the US. Can someone with access to the article comment on this?
- devsda 1y agoWill Amazon also display the referral fee they charge the seller for the purchase ? Its good to know if Amazon's cut is on the total price including the tariff or the price excluding the tariff. It'll help understand whether Amazon is profiting from the situation or not.
- al_borland 1y agoI’d like them to add a Made in USA section where people can find tariff free products that support local businesses and workers.
- NicuCalcea 1y agoI would also like a filter like that, though for a different purpose.
- tnel77 1y agoWhile I agree with you, I think it would be extremely rare (maybe impossible) to have a truly tariff-free product. Yes, all of the parts and assembly for a product can occur in the United States, but what about the tools they use? What about the semi and the fuel it uses to bring you those tools? While there will certainly be companies that don’t directly pay tariffs, it will be hard for just about every domestic manufacturer to be completely shielded from their effects.
- jghn 1y agoThis is incredibly naive. How can you possibly know the source of every component and raw material in what you're buying? "Made in USA" *at best* translates to "assembled in the USA"
- ChoGGi 1y agoI'd rather a percentage made in, so you can get an idea of how "made in America" something is.
- Workaccount2 1y agoPeople won't use it. Even with tariffs, stuff is still cheaper than made in usa. People are going to be pissed that a basic clothes iron now cost $80, but they will not go buy the $225 that is made in texas or wherever. Especially when it is no better, and likely even worse, than the $80 one.
- bluGill 1y agoI have done that, but it is a lot of work for the same quality (though it generally gets rid of the junk)
- profmonocle 1y agoI'm fine with this as long as they include the tariff in the listed price. I'm worried businesses are going to use tariffs as an excuse to have a fake list price, then hit you with massive hidden fees at the point of sale. Some sectors have been doing this for years - "service fees" at restaurants, "regulatory response fees" in the telecom industry, all sorts of nonsense in event ticketing. Physical goods have mostly been spared this type of fake pricing - aside from sales tax not being included, but that's been universally true in the US forever so everyone is used to it. Tariffs could be the end of that if businesses see sales plummet. Especially because these scams actually work - the reason restaurants give for not just increasing their menu prices is because higher listed prices drive people away.
- clbrmbr 1y ago100% this. I’d take it a step further and say that sales tax should be included when you are logged in and it can be anticipated, like is the case in most other countries.
- bluGill 1y agoSales tax cannot be per-calculated, since it is charged on the total sale. Rounding errors will get you. (when I worked fast food 30 years ago one value meal was $3.18, but two were $6.27) The government pays attention to this type of thing and they will get you for those pennies. (remember there are many governments, it is possibly all the local governments in question would decide not to pay attention, but that doesn't mean those rules apply to someone else who lives in a different area and thus has different local governments)
- pentamassiv 1y agoSure it can. It works perfectly fine in many other countries.
- xienze 1y agoThere's a slight difference between having one tax rate at the country level and having numerous differing state and local sales tax rates. You don't even know what to charge the customer until you know their exact location.
- rubyfan 1y agoIs this a reputable news site? There are some warning signs that make me believe it’s sponsored content. It feels less like news and more like propaganda?
- badRNG 1y agoI can't find anyone else reporting on this.
- josefresco 1y agoPretty easy to look up, they appear to be "reputable" (whatever that means now) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punchbowl_News https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punchbowl_News Co-founder: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jake_Sherman_(journalist) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jake_Sherman_(journalist)
- ndsipa_pomu 1y agoWell, it seems to have elicited a Trumpian response: https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2025/apr/29/hsbc-trade-war-bad-debts-trump-automotive-tariffs-stock-markets-business-live-news https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2025/apr/29/hsbc-t... > The Trump White House is furious with Amazon over reports that it plans to display the cost of tariffs on items it sells. > Press secretary Karoline Leavitt has just given the company both barrels, at her briefing with the media today. > Leavitt claims the move is “a hostile and political act by Amazon”, and asks why Amazon didn’t take a similar step when inflation hit 40-year highs under the Biden administration.
- rsynnott 1y ago... -ish. It's ex-Politico people. Like, they didn't just make this up.
- kyleblarson 1y agoAmazon just released a denial.
- ndsipa_pomu 1y ago
- xtiansimon 1y agoInteresting. AliExpress added this last week as a line item cost during checkout. I took up a new hobby in 2021 and was buying materials from Amazon and eBay. There’s more transparency on eBay for products shipped directly from China. As a result I stated to realize when shopping on Amazon (and not buying a known Branded Manufacturer, but choosing same category product at lower price) I was buying the exact same low quality Chinese products on Amazon as I was buying on eBay and paying more. Of course, Amazon has better customer service and more consistent return policies compared to eBay stores. There’s benefits for the price, but the products are the same. Then I discovered AliExpress, and found the same products I was buying on eBay, and Amazon, but my costs were even less. Downside was longer shipping times, and (effectively) no returns. Last week I looked to buy more materials at AliExpress, and found the line item tariff cost had doubled the price. I think you see the differences I’m highlighting here are cost and customer service—ALL for the SAME products. I’m bummed my hobby costs are going up for the same quality products. I’m bummed the sub-800$ exemption is going away. I believe AliExpress is the Chinese equivalent of eBay. Everybody is buying from the wholesale marketplace, Alibaba. If an Amazon seller is adding tariffs, then I think they’re an AliExpress seller on the Amazon platform.
- xtiansimon 1y agoYOINK! That didn't last long. British investigative journalist Carole Cadwalladr calls the "tech bros" (Elon, Jeff, Mark) "hostages" of the Trump administration. https://youtu.be/TZOoT8AbkNE https://youtu.be/TZOoT8AbkNE
- jll29 1y agoI hope amazon.com will call them "Trump tariffs" to make sure who is to blame.
- paulcole 1y agoYou can blame Trump but in the US, we’re all to blame here. Blaming somebody who’s not me just make it easier to feel good about myself and like I’m less of the problem. I mean call them the Democrats tariffs. 2024 was a gift-wrapped election victory and the Democrats (shockingly) bungled it in staggeringly impressive fashion.
- myrmidon 1y agoWhat do you think the democrats did wrong-- what should they have done to win? I'm curious; I currently don't think that election was so easy for them, with having to run a different candidate, and the overton window shifting right (not just US; EU too).
- bluGill 1y agoFor starters they more or less blindly went with their candidate until forced to change. I don't know who should have seen Biden was no longer competent, but the signs should have been there - those people should have made Biden resign a year before the primary season started. Of course the republicans are just as guilty as democrats in letting their people keep running as they get old in office. I have a personal policy of never voting for someone who has held the office more than 1 time. If more people would do this we would solve a bunch of problems. (2 terms is a good number if you like the person since they have some experience in the second term). This also means I oppose too small districts in local issues - if there are not several people interested in running for the office than either it shouldn't be elected (why do I elect my country treasurer - it shouldn't have any power), or the district is too small.
- paulcole 1y ago1. Biden was clearly gone mentally well before they let on. He should have been taken out in the primary season. 2. Democrats believe that "anybody who's not the other guy" is a winning strategy despite it failing over and over. They think that a candidate that people are excited to vote for is not a necessity and have been proven wrong over and over and over again. They got beat with this strategy in 2000, 2004, 2016 (and now 2024). It barely worked in 2020. If the plan in 2028 is somebody who's a hold-your-nose and say "Well I'll vote for anyone who isn't republican" they will get absolutely smoked again.
- djoldman 1y agoIt would be amazing if there was regulation requiring the display of a "total tariff" line item to every product and service offered or listed for sale. Perhaps subject to a minimum total price, so that buying an apple didn't require such a burden on retailers. The idea being that folks would pay attention to this stuff. There are a zillion tariffs affecting prices and they just sit there for decades.
- duncangh 1y agoAmazon will add any information to the UX like a hoarder adding trinkets to their collection from the gift store. It's kind of endearing, really
- gclawes 1y agoGood. Make it an API service.
- rayiner 1y agoAmazon is the archetype of a destructive business. It’s a business that depends completely on flooding the country with cheap chinese crap, delivered overnight by desperate recent immigrants. The archetype of the hollowing out of america championed by the Reagan/Bush GOP.
- Eextra953 1y agoThis line of thinking is what people are pushing to justify the insane tarriff policy. Amazon is evil, slave labor, they tarriff us, etc. I'm not saying these things aren't true. However, my problem with this argument is that it frames the consumer as a victim to Amazon and to the 'hollowing out of America'. Consumers have a choice - they love using Amazon and importing cheap goods. Where is the self-reflection?
- rayiner 1y ago> I'm not saying these things aren't true But it still seems like you’re disagreeing with my conclusion? Yes, consumers love cheap goods. And businesses love to make short term profits even if it means selling out the future by gutting American companies and turning them into mere distributors for Chinese companies. That’s why you need the government to intervene to change peoples’ behaviors. There is a reason we tax cigarettes and other things that are bad for us. We do it to change people’s behaviors, to get them to consume less of the bad thing. Yes, like with tariffs, it makes the bad thing more expensive. That’s the whole point! Amazon is a bad company with a bad business model, and I don’t actually care who is the one who takes them out.
- slibhb 1y agoYeah, let's ban machines in factories while we're at it. Then Americans will have the honor of stitching clothing and standing at conveyer belts. On a less sarcastic note, pretty much zero mainstream economists believe that tariffs will bring back manufacturing to the US. There are economists who think the US should manufacture more. They talk about taxing consumption more and savings/investment less. When you cite economists to tariff-enthusiasts, they usually reply with "economics is a scam!" or some such nonsense. That's only a breath away from an equally dumb Marxist line: "economists are just servants of The Capital". Bleh. And I love Amazon. They're a fantastic company and have been since day 1. I'm a grown-up. If I want to buy cheap Chinese goods, I should be able to. And if that hurts Americans, that sucks for them, but I shouldn't have to pay a tax because some US company can't compete with Chinese companies. And if I lose my job because someone in China does it better/cheaper, I won't whine about it. I'll find something else to do.
- josefritzishere 1y agoI am already seeing tarrifs on invoices for a few weeks. We immediately adjusted COGS and list in our price book and passed these increases on to customers.
- largbae 1y agoWould this not reveal every importer's gross margin to its competitors? The tariff is only on the importer's "landed cost". If the tariff is itemized(and not just a made up number by the seller), then you can easily work out their gross profit margin and the price they are paying their OEM. It seems like no seller would want this.
- aaronbaugher 1y agoYeah, it won't last. They'll decide it's too revealing, or too hard to calculate an actual number. People are throwing around all sorts of percentages, and none of them really mean anything because whatever the effect of tariffs is on a particular item, it's bundled up with the inflation that's been growing for years and everyone in the supply chain taking a bigger chunk because everyone else is. This is just performative.
- SecretDreams 1y agoThis is a fair point. Interesting topic since I think transparency to the end user on the effects of tariffs is also important.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- mandeepj 1y ago* Amazon showing tariff costs is 'hostile and political act,' WH says* WH is now filled with extremely dumb people. The other day, the Orange clown was telling automakers to not raise prices due to tariffs, instead absorb them <face palm>
- bluedino 1y agoSure, but don't fix fake reviews or counterfeit products or...
- 1970-01-01 1y agoThis is absolutely going to backfire. The question is: will it backfire on the POTUS or the merchants? My take is free markets will strongarm the POTUS as they have already demonstrated the ability to do that.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- xipho 1y agoOn a "price awareness vein" - I've thought that a killer app would be a phone app that runs in a grocery store, it detects costs, brands, and sizes, and overlays two things 1) the option that is cheaper per mass and 2) whether there are cheaper options in other stores. Bonus for "this no-name is the same as that brand-name". Imagine waving your phone, or having on your VR glasses and getting this feedback "instantly". Plus, you can sell what you learned to sellers so they can out-compete one-another (and drive prices down for consumers). In a sci-fi world this would turn grocery stores into Faraday cages quickly. Maybe not useful for the Doordash generation, but the majority of human life can't afford such.
- DrillShopper 1y agoThat sounds like living in hell, tbqh, especially with the selling data part.
- xipho 1y agoThe discovery part is anything but. I was trained to recognize scams in grocery stores (the on sale smaller is never cheaper then the bulk item... until rarely it is) early on by my parents. Few people recognize just how bad this is. Educating folks with somethign that does it for them first is a first step. But yah, completely with you on the "sales is hell" part, that bit was for the startup bros.
- SilverBirch 1y agoIt's thoroughly satisfying to see how quickly Amazon have had to go hostile on Trump after Bezos immolating the WSJ to satisfy Trump. This is a massive attack on the Trump administration you've to wonder if Bezos regrets playing along in the run up to this.
- xivzgrev 1y agoThis one sparks joy! I hope other retailers follow suit
- Eextra953 1y agoI'm not sure why so many comments think this is a bad idea. I think it's a great idea and should be adopted by all retailers. We already do the same thing with sales tax. Tarriffs are close to sales tax in there effect to consumers so it makes sense to show it up front. It lets customers see just how much more they have to pay due to the, ever changing, tariffs. Good for Amazon.
- flutas 1y agoIn a roundabout way it also lets you know what products are manufactured in countries other than China, allowing you to choose them over the Chinese equivalent.
- esotericimpl 1y ago[dead]
- beloch 1y agoIt's apparently a partisan issue. Take a look at the White House's response. > * White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said she had discussed the Punchbowl News report with Trump, and his message about it was: "This is a hostile and political act by Amazon." * [1] The Trump administration has expressed a clear expectation that businesses like Amazon should pretend tariffs are paid by foreign countries. Transparent pricing is now disloyal. [1]https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/white-house-amazon-tariff-price-announcement-is-hostile-2025-04-29/ https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/white-house...
- taytus 1y agoJust because the White House say it is a partisan issue, doesn’t make it one.
- ModernMech 1y agoHuh? They are the partisans. If they make it an issue, it’s a partisan issue.
- 1y ago
- Workaccount2 1y agoElectronics components vendors have recently implemented this. There is a notice next to some parts that they will be subject to tariff charges. When you go to checkout there is an additional cost line with those charges. I recently had to buy some transformers, and had no other choice but to get bent over. The price more than doubled at checkout.
- kebokyo 1y agoI can’t read the actual article because I can’t find a way past the paywall… but I am fairly certain this is a political play. If consumers see two products, one from China and another from Vietnam, both with their tariff markups listed, I have a feeling they’d pick the Vietnam product more often due to the lower markup. This makes Trump happy because he clearly wants us to stop buying Chinese products.
- kebokyo 1y agoNever mind I am a silly little goober who thinks a little too well https://www.axios.com/2025/04/29/tariffs-amazon-prime-day-sellers-report https://www.axios.com/2025/04/29/tariffs-amazon-prime-day-se...
- Terr_ 1y agoTo recycle a similar sentiment from another submission [0] on the White House's response: One of the Republicans' (conflicting) rationales for the import taxes was Americans would notice the higher prices and be motivated to seek out domestic alternatives. If they were telling the truth, they should be happy to see these factors clearly displayed, since that makes it easy for consumers to compare and switch to other products that aren't being tariffed. Instead, they're freaking out, indicating they want to deceive consumers and voters into blaming higher prices on "greedy companies", instead of (correctly) blaming the federal government which is taking the money for unprecedented new "national emergency" taxes. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43831027 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43831027
- reverendsteveii 1y ago"This is hostile and political." --The President. No, Really. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/29/white-house-blasts-amazon-over-tariff-cost-report-hostile-and-political-act.html https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/29/white-house-blasts-amazon-ov...
- neogodless 1y agoTechnically Karoline Leavitt said it.
- reverendsteveii 1y agothank you for correcting me. the point still stands: it's really weird the way the government uses "political" as a pejorative when everything they do is, by definition, political. it smacks of doublethink.
- pessimizer 1y agoNot if your point was that Trump Really Said It. You said one thing and it was wrong. And since it was in the second sentence of the article you linked, I assume you just read the headline.
- reverendsteveii 1y agoI...just told you what my point was in the comment you're replying to?
- bigyabai 1y agoIt really is a direct quote from Donald Trump: White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said earlier she had discussed the initial news with Trump and his response was: “This is a hostile and political act by Amazon.” https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2025/apr/29/donald-trump-100-days-in-office-immigration-tariffs-canada-mark-carney-us-politics-live-updates?CMP=share_btn_url&page=with%3Ablock-6810ec198f08b6ffd73c18bc#block-6810ec198f08b6ffd73c18bc https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2025/apr/29/donald-...
- StanAngeloff 1y ago"Amazon says it never considered listing import charges on main site - report" https://www.bbc.com/news/live/cpvrrre4zlkt?post=asset%3A0240f060-8479-433e-8f47-82dfe37bbdfe#post https://www.bbc.com/news/live/cpvrrre4zlkt?post=asset%3A0240...
- abirch 1y agoYes, Amazon is denying it though it would make sense. “The team that runs our ultra low cost Amazon Haul store has considered the idea of listing import charges on certain products,” the company said in a statement. “Teams discuss ideas all the time. This was never a consideration for the main Amazon site and nothing has been implemented on any Amazon properties.” https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-29/white-house-calls-amazon-hostile-for-reported-tariff-displays https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-29/white-hou...
- ethbr1 1y agoShould probably get an [updated], since the submission title now seems inaccurate after Amazon clarification.
- devrandoom 1y agoTrump made them an offer they couldn't refuse.
- abenga 1y agoAmazon (used to?) list import charges when I import stuff into my country. It's surprising that they wouldn't the other way.
- anovikov 1y agoNot sure what they are planning to gain this way. Just alienate Trump administration and become a subject of government action? That's near certain to happen when you fall out of line.
- ChrisMarshallNY 1y agoI was just talking to a couple friends of mine, about this, yesterday. They run a medium-sized manufacturing business that has almost all their work done overseas. Another friend of mine was just laid off, as a transportation broker, directly because of the tariffs. The tariffs have the potential to drive tens of thousands of small- and medium businesses into bankruptcy, overnight. I feel as if this was not well thought-out. Maybe megacorps, like Tesla, can weather it, but many smaller businesses have no buffer. That said, the manufacturing imbalance and trade imbalance is a very real problem that needs to be solved. I just feel as if we are approaching it in a manner that is simplistic, and favors only very large corporations.
- bloudermilk 1y agoIt’s as if these policies were created without any concern for the well being of SMBs and consumers.
- garciasn 1y agos/SMB.*$/anyone./g
- sorcerer-mar 1y agoIt is a literal stupid person calling the shots. He literally thinks trade deficits are the US "losing" or "giving away" money to foreign countries, and he believes (correctly, in a way) that we can tariff our way to perfect trade balance.
- andrewflnr 1y ago> I feel as if this was not well thought-out. No need to hedge. Anyone with their head on the right way around can see how much thought went into it.
- DrillShopper 1y ago> The tariffs have the potential to drive tens of thousands of small- and medium businesses into bankruptcy, overnight. That is their goal - to drive out the small and medium businesses so that the president's donors can swoop in with private capital offers to enrich themselves.
- cactusplant7374 1y agohttps://www.axios.com/2025/04/29/tariffs-amazon-prime-day-sellers-report https://www.axios.com/2025/04/29/tariffs-amazon-prime-day-se... > According to e-commerce software company SmartScout, 900 products on Amazon saw increased prices since April 9, with an average increase of 29%. Tariffs aren't having a big impact yet.
- umvi 1y agoI'm seeing other stories now that this punchbowl news article is made up (ex: https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2025/apr/29/hsbc-trade-war-bad-debts-trump-automotive-tariffs-stock-markets-business-live-news https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2025/apr/29/hsbc-t...)
- neogodless 1y agoTo elaborate: “The team that runs our ultra low cost Amazon Haul store has considered listing import charges on certain products. This was never a consideration for the main Amazon site and nothing has been implemented on any Amazon properties.” — Jeff Stein
- Wistar 1y agoWH: “This is a hostile and political act by Amazon.” https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2025/04/29/wh_hostile_and_political_act_of_chinese_propaganda_by_amazon_to_show_tariff_costs.html https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2025/04/29/wh_hostil...
- charonn0 1y ago> Amazon.com denied a report on Tuesday that it planned to disclose the cost that U.S. tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump were adding to its products, after the White House blasted the initial story. https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/white-house-amazon-tariff-price-announcement-is-hostile-2025-04-29/ https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/white-house...
- deagle50 1y agoSo they want to show the government's markup but not their own?
- tbatchelli 1y agoCamelCamelCamel records the prices over time of items in Amazon. It's helpful because they fluctuate quite a bit, so you can tell when you might be overpaying. In any case, that can be the database of record for the tariff effects if Amazon does not itemize the tariff costs.
- insane_dreamer 1y agoAmazon quickly backed down once attacked by the White House over it. Intimidation tactics are working.
- EasyMark 1y agoThis is the right thing to do. Transparency is good. Let people decide if they want to pay the backdoor VAT that Trump is adding to their lives. When politicians scream and wail when transparency increases, then you know the right thing is happening.
- Technetium 1y agoNews sure moves fast... "Amazon denies it planned to disclose cost of US tariffs on its website" - April 29, 2025 12:01 PM EDT: [1] "Trump complained to Bezos before Amazon said it scrapped idea to display tariff cost" - April 29 2025 9:01 AM EDT: [2] "Amazon denies tariff pricing plan after White House calls it "hostile and political"" - April 29, 2025 12:01 PM EDT: [3] [1] https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/white-house-amazon-tariff-price-announcement-is-hostile-2025-04-29/ https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/white-house... [2] https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/29/white-house-blasts-amazon-over-tariff-cost-report-hostile-and-political-act.html https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/29/white-house-blasts-amazon-ov... [3] https://www.axios.com/2025/04/29/tariffs-amazon-prime-day-sellers-report https://www.axios.com/2025/04/29/tariffs-amazon-prime-day-se...